1. The Japanese-Soviet negotiations regarding the question of fishing in the northern waters came to a satisfactory conclusion on April 2nd and a modus vivendi was signed at midnight by Ambassador Togo and Foreign Commissar Litvinoff. The following is an outline of the progress of negotiations conducted after the announcement at the end of February this year up to the time of the conclusion of the agreement.
Since March Ambassador Togo negotiated nine times with Foreign Commissar Litvinoff, namely, on the 8th, 11th, 14th, 22nd, 26th, 28th and 31st of March and 1st and 2nd of April; and in the meantime Counsellor Nishi negotiated from time to time with Assistant Chief of the Far Eastern Bureau Tsarabukin.
Some of these interviews lasted for several hours with heated arguments, and more than once there was the danger of rupture. The Japanese side, however, has consistently endeavoured along reasonable lines to persuade the Soviet to reach an amicable solution while maintaining a resolute attitude for the preservation of our treaty rights. As a result a satisfactory agreement has been reached.
At the interviews held after March 8th, Ambassador Togo refuted the Soviet argument which said it was unreasonable for Japan to demand substitute fishery lots for exempted fishery lots, and he strongly expressed the Japanese contention regarding the stabilized fishery lots. At the same time he endeavoured to persuade the Soviet to postpone the auction scheduled for March 15th, urging the Soviet side to reconsider and stated that the serious responsibility should be borne by the Soviet Government for the situation which might arise as a result of its insistent unilateral contentions.
On March 15th, the Soviet carried out the auction as previously planned and, although the fishery lots which the Japanese had hitherto operated were not affected as a whole, it successfully bid for four of the stabilized lots hitherto operated by the Japanese as well as six fishery lots which the Soviet Government had proposed to
place on auction as substitutes for the fishery lots which it had previously proposed to exempt from the operation by Japanese nationals. Against this the Japanese Embassy at Moscow lodged a vigorous protest in an official Note dated the 19th, stating that Japan refused to accept the effect of the auction.
The negotiations were continued which substantially came to a close by the end of March. The negotiations were then shifted to the question of what form of document should be adopted to incorporate the points agreed upon. At midnight on April 2nd the negotiations on the fishery question came to a satisfactory conclusion, and the Japanese participated in the auction held at Vladivostok on April 4.
2. The results of the agreement may be summarized as follows:
(A) The Fishery Convention of 1928 remains in force until the end of this year.
(B) The contract for the special contract fishery lots is extended another year with the exception of four exempted lots, concerning which mention will be made later.
(C) As to stabilized fishery lots they are placed on auction with the exception of the exempted lots, of which mention will be made later, but
(a) The definite prospect is that Japanese fishing interests will acquire them.
(b) These acquired lots will be under lease for five years.
(c) The rent is not to be raised more than ten per cent.
(d) The four lots which were successfully bidden by the Soviet side on March 15th, are to be returned to the Japanese.
(D) The exempted fishery lots:
Thirty-seven fishery lots consisting of thirty-two of the stabilized lots, four of the special lots, and one of the lots under lease are exempted from auction as exceptions to Article 8 of the Protocol A of the Fishery Convention. But against these lots ten substitute lots are offered, nine of which are to be leased for five years by auction.
(E) The nine Japanese fishery lots which have been placed on auction because their lease expired will be successfully bidden by the Japanese for the term of five years.
(F) The fifty-two fishery lots which have been still under lease will continue to be leased by the Japanese.
(G) The rate of rouble exchange remains the same as before.
To sum up, the Japanese side has acceded to the Soviet contention regarding the placing of the so-called stabilized lots on auction because the term of their lease has expired. But the Japanese will
successfully bid for all the fishery lots except the exempted ones and secure the stabilization of the fishery lots for five years. As for the exempted fishery lots, although we are not to operate twenty-seven of them, we can operate about three hundred and sixty fishery lots. In other words, Japan has acquired as the result of the recent negotiations about three hundred and sixty fishery lots in all, of which two hundred and sixty-four are to be stabilized for five years.